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The New York Times Celebrates 75 Years of Crosswords

Once considered a print-only, uber-intellectual pursuit, the puzzle has evolved to provide a satisfying diversion that anyone can learn and solve.

The New York Times Celebrates 75 Years of Crosswords

Once considered a print-only, uber-intellectual pursuit, the puzzle has evolved to provide a satisfying diversion that anyone can learn and solve.

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After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a New York Times editor made a decision: “We ought to proceed with the puzzle.”

The puzzle in question was a crossword. Despite decades of popularity — and the endorsement of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, then the publisher of The Times — crosswords had yet to appear in the newspaper. (A Times editorial had called the puzzles a “sinful waste” of time.)

Responding to an audience in need of relaxation, the paper moved in a new direction.

Seventy-five years later, people continue to turn to The Times’s puzzles for comfort and distraction.

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A Brief History of the New York Times Crosswords

The New York World publishes the world's first crossword puzzle by the newspaperman Arthur Wynne. It becomes instantly popular with readers.

Nov. 17, 1924

An editorial in The New York Times calls crossword puzzles “a primitive sort of mental exercise” and a “sinful waste” of time.

The New York Times

Feb. 15, 1942

The New York Times becomes the last major metropolitan daily newspaper in the country to offer a crossword puzzle — begun as a way to give readers a distraction from war news. Margaret Farrar, the first crossword editor, became the grande dame of American crosswords through her 27 years at the paper.